Binay is not a bloody criminal...

Buddy Gomez

...and that is only because there is no proof, much less any on-going criminal investigation, that somebody’s blood is on his hands. But from all pieces of evidence unearthed and presented, remaining unrefuted, his pockets are lined with dirty money. His fingers finally caught in the public cashier’s till.

Vice President Jejomar C. Binay appears to have been, once more, confirmed as the latest of the slickest and most adept of the country’s lineup of white-collar criminals. Irrefutably, he now belongs to the crème of world-class fiscal malevolence. Nails upon his coffin are adding up.

The latest in this on-going series of revelations is of course the 62-page report of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) in support of its petition before the Court of Appeals to freeze 242 bank accounts, securities and insurance papers which include “8 dummies, 3 companies and 139 bank accounts” all traceable to Jojo Binay.

The AMLC’s findings: financial movements and transactions--deposits over time--totaled Pesos 11 Billion, (about US$215-plus millions) which includes a Pesos 600-million deposit in just one day! The report further cites withdrawals of Pesos 3.3 Billion since the Senate investigation commenced.

The report was signed by the highly respected and very credible governor of our Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Amando Tetangco, Jr. That is serious business. Therefore, the arithmetic is unerring and precise. The vetting unassailable. Pun intended, this you can take to the bank!

Before this AMLC report, we have witnessed the Senate Blue Ribbon sub-committee hearings racking up an unprecedented 25 sessions over some 18 months, invitations to which Binay chose to ignore. In summation, the Blue Ribbon sub-com recommended filing of criminal charges.

There is the Office of the Ombudsman, led by the forthright and untarnished former Supreme Court justice, Conchita Carpio-Morales. The Ombudsman has already indicted Binay. (The Vice President is, however, immune from lawsuits while still in office. Unfortunately, sanctions can only be acted upon after his term of office is over, on June 30 2016.)

And then there is the Commission on Audit Report. The 12-member investigative panel in its 148-page special audit report recommended the filing of charges against Binay for the overpriced construction (Pesos 2.8 Billion) of the Makati City Hall Building II and a long litany of attendant acts of graft and corrupt practices.

There is no other public official in any nation’s history who has ever been subjected to multi-layered and multi-faceted judicial processes of validating stacks upon stacks of accusations anchored upon prima facie evidences such as what our Vice President has been accorded. Therefore, no such individual deserves any nation’s chief magistracy. Imagine, an accused embezzler being elected President!

Instead of frontally responding to the charges and defending himself, however, Binay and his mercenary cohorts all claim political persecution and partisan demolition to deny him the Presidency! As if the Presidency was his birthright to daintily saunter into. As if filing a certificate of candidacy already immunizes one from being caught up with felonies he gambled with.

His political party, the United Nationalist Alliance even displays the gumption of labeling the investigative output of the Anti-Money Laundering Council as false and maliciously contrived. Precisely because of the magnitude and the volume of felonies he is accused of, there is every reason that a hapless undiscerning electorate be protected from a manipulating demagogue with untold money resources such as he.

Shorn of political rhetoric and legalese, all four reports have arrived at a single uniform conclusion. Binay, by all allegations, is a crook! He will have his day in court, of course. Vice President Jojo Binay, as we all know, is still in the running for the Presidency in the forthcoming May elections.

Evidently, he continues to maintain strong possibilities of a successful contention. After all, he has been campaigning from the very day he was confirmed elected Vice President in 2010, hoodwinking the vast proletariat with outlandish promises.

CORE SUPPORT

The tentative conclusion of some survey analysts states that the “core support group” of Binay is holding, although he has now slipped to third in the rankings of Presidential candidates, per the latest polling, already a week old. The forthcoming polls, they are now expected to roll out with regularity as the national elections near, will begin to evince trends and re-alignments. Such trends will also reveal the moral values and political maturity of the Philippine electorate.

On the other hand, the release of the AMLC report seems somehow to have been received with a surfeit of public outrage. Are we, perhaps, beginning to suffer from Binay fatigue? Not really, I hope. But if so, is that good? Or is that bad, and for whom? For now, we are not beyond unsubstantiated conjectures. Our election news stream is momentarily sidelined by another financial scandal.

It is the sensation delivered by that transnational US$81-million banking cyber-heist involving the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation, our casinos and some of their their VIP patrons and retainers. This event has temporarily siphoned and redirected national attention. When this wanes, we shall be back with our local political stew.

DOWN IN CEBU

In the meantime, something ridiculously funny is happening down south in Cebu. Nothing major. Just a visible horde of misguided parishioner/zealots calling themselves “Citizens for Life” representing, most probably without sacerdotal authority, a handful of parishes in support of a Binay presidency! Obviously unconcerned about thievery in the public coffers their favored candidate is accused of, they are raising hell against the implementation of the Reproductive Health Law! “Neither ‘rhythm’ nor condoms, Binay is our champion!” might as well be their battle cry!

What is not funny is the unfurling report that the Mar Roxas’ camp has cracked the Solid North! Pledges from Ilocandia are forming a beeline towards the Liberal Party standard-bearer, it is claimed. Evidently, local opposition to the Marcoses has some life remaining and still stirs. “Hope springs eternal” is every politician’s inalienable right!

Disclaimer:The views in this blog are those of the blogger and do not necessarily reflect the views of ABS-CBN Corp.